


The Golden Trio

by unacaritafeliz



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Frog Fluff, Gen, Halloween Costumes, Harry Potter discourse, Obligatory Johnson text
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 09:24:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16472888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unacaritafeliz/pseuds/unacaritafeliz
Summary: "I have important business to discuss with my As," Chowder says, trailing his finger down a book spine. He pauses dramatically and glances up at them before his face breaks out into a terrifying smile. "Halloween Costumes!"[Chowder has the most perfect idea for Halloween. Nursey and Dex aren't so sure.]





	The Golden Trio

**Author's Note:**

> This really doesn't have a plot, it's just... The Frogs being The Frogs because I love them and we need more fic about them hanging out and being best friends and shit.
> 
> It takes place in their senior year. Chowder has the C and Nursey and Dex both have As and serve as captains during games.

Nursey's not a coward. In fact, he's probably one of the braver members of the Samwell Men's Hockey team. That said, the sight of Chris Chow leaning in the doorway, dark eyes glinting dangerously and mouth quirked up in a mischievous smirk, could strike fear into the hearts of far braver souls.

"Sup, boys," Chowder says, conversationally, as if he doesn't know how imposing he looks.

 "Hello," Dex says.

 Nursey flicks his eyes over to his defense partner. Dex's face gives nothing away, but his eyes filled with quiet concerned. Nursey pulls his gaze back to Chowder, who's now inside the room, inspecting their bookshelf with an unnerving amount of disinterest.

 "What's up, C?" Nursey asks. 

 "I have important business to discuss with my As," Chowder says, trailing his finger down a book spine. He pauses dramatically and glances up at them before his face breaks out into a terrifying smile. "Halloween Costumes!"

 Nursey rolls his eyes. He hates Halloween; considers it's a pointless holiday that normalises disgusting racist stereotypes and cultural appropriation. Dex hates Halloween too, although that's mostly just because Dex hates anything that's even remotely fun. Chowder, however, loves Halloween, and has ever since he was too young to go trick-or-treating for candy he was too diabetic to eat.

 Dex groans. "No way, Chow," he says, firmly. "We're not doing that shit again."

 "Incorrect," Chowder says, deadpan. "We are absolutely, definitely, 100% doing this shit again. We're not having a repeat of SpooKegster 2K15."

 After an intense Halloween Kegster their Freshman Year - where Nursey had dressed as a hipster, Dex had dressed as a hockey player and Chowder had dressed as a vampire that was severely disappointed with his two best friends - Chowder had taken responsibility for planning Halloween costumes for the Frogs. They'd dressed as Ash, Misty and Brock in their sophomore year (Chowder had even dressed Sharkie up as Pikachu) and had done a pretty cool joint costume as the PowerPuff Girls and RowdyRuff Boys with Farmer and some of her team last year. Dex had always hated being included in the group costume, but Nursey didn't mind. He got to put in no effort and still avoid getting chirped. And, besides, Chowder made sure he always looked cute.

 "Nope," Dex says. "Not happening. Do a couple's costume with Farms."

 Chowder folds his arms across his chest and lifts one eyebrow up at Dex. He looks so fierce. Nursey's glad that he's not on the receiving end of that look.

 "Bold of you to assume that Caitlin's not included in this," Chowder says.

 Dex shakes his head and exhales. He glances helplessly towards Nursey. "Do something!" he pleads, pointing his hand in Chowder's general direction.

 Nursey laughs. "What's the plan, C?" he asks.

 Chowder has never looked more wickedly excited. Dex has never looked so abysmally betrayed.

 "Harry, Ron, Hermione," Chowder announces, pointing first at himself, then at Dex, then Nursey. "And Farmer as Ginny! It's perfect.'

 Nursey frowns. It's not that Chowder's wrong - the four of them are actually pretty well matched with the four Potter mains in terms of personality and there are definitely similarities in their appearances - it's just that... well, Nursey doesn't really like Harry Potter anymore. Like, sure, the world building was pretty cool and the nostalgia value is amazing but also like... the books are mad problematic and JKR keeps digging herself further and further into weird holes as she tries to claim credit for representation she never wrote. And look, Nursey's read The Cursed Child and he's never one to criticize anyone else's creativity but What The Fuck?

 Dex snorts. "Yeah, neither me or Nurse are gonna do that," he says. "Have fun with Farmer though."

 Chowder rounds on Nursey. "You'll do it, right, Nursey?" he demands. "You love Harry Potter!'

 "I mean, I like Harry Potter in theory?" says Nursey. "But also JKR is like, mad problematic now, which translates to her books being mad problematic back then. I don't really want to be seen as supporting the books or her anymore given that the context for them is so much different than what I understood it to be as a child."

 "C'mon, Nurse," Dex calls sarcastically from his desk. "Don't you know that Harry was canonically Chinese the whole time? It just wasn't relevant to his story!"

 Nursey stares at Chowder, wordlessly raising an eyebrow and pointing a finger towards Dex.

 "Okay, I can acknowledge that JKR is objectively not the best," says Chowder in the understatement of the century. "But, like, isn't the thing about Harry Potter that it belongs to us? It's our story, we grew up with it and we can make it whatever we want it to be!"

 "I don't think that's how it works, Chow," Dex says.

"That's totally how it works," says Chowder. "I can interpret Harry Potter however I want, and I think that Harry is Chinese and Hermione is part black, part Chilean..."

 "I'm not actually part Chilean," Nursey interrupts, even though Chowder definitely knows this information. "My stepmom..."

 "And that Hedwig is actually a shark charmed to look like an owl," Chowder continues as if Nursey hadn't spoken. "AND that Ron and Hermione are actually two dudes who... are just bros... and have absolutely no sexual tension together... at all."

Chowder's voice drops to a slow, monotonous drawl for the last bit and Nursey considers lunging across the room to put him in a headlock because of how obvious he's being. It's only the fact that he'd be alone with Dex if he killed Chowder that stops him from straight up murdering his best friend.

"Ron and Hermione should be gay together," he says, instead. Unlike Chowder, he can be casual and subtle about things. "#Romione4Eva."

"100% agreed," says Chowder. He glances across to Dex. "I just didn't think that would help convince you and Dex to do it."

"I'm not doing this regardless of whether or not Ron and Hermione are gay together," Dex mutters. His ears have turned pink. "They should be, though, for the record."

"Come on, guys," says Chowder pouts. "This is our last Halloween at Samwell! And we're Captains! We've done so much together the last few years and we might not even be anywhere near each other this time next year and I just want one more good Halloween memory from my senior year with my two best friends..."

 Intellectually, Nursey knows it'd be dumb and pathetic to give in to Chowder's sad eyes. Chowder just came in their room with the most chaotic neutral attitude and has shown absolutely no regard for Dex or Nursey's opinion. He's very clearly faking this sadness in order to get Nursey and Dex to do what he wants them to do. Nursey knows all this.

 "Fine," Nursey sighs. "I'll do it."

At his core, Nursey is just a simple man who loves his friends. 

 "Yes!" Chowder screams, throwing himself across the room to fall in Nursey's lap. He presses a wet kiss to Nursey's cheek. "Nursey, you beautiful, beautiful man.This is going to be ‘swawesome!"

 "But!" Nursey says, trying to sound serious even though he knows he's grinning like a fool. "In this universe, Hermione is a Ravenclaw. I'll die before I wear Gryffindor colours."

 "Fine!" Chowder agrees. He's still sprawled in Nursey's lap, arms wrapped around Nursey's shoulders. "That's completely fine, thank you Nursey!"

 Nursey feels Chowder's phone buzz in his pocket at the same time he sees his own light up on his bed and hears Dex's chime from the table. Dex picks his up, looks at it, and frowns.

"What's it say, Dexy?" Nursey asks.

"So, uh, so, it's Johnson," Dex says. That explains the frown - Nursey can admit that he's never understood a single thing about Johnson, but Dex is actively offended by Johnson's incomprehensibility. "He'd like to remind everyone that Nursey is canonically in Gryffindor and that if anyone should be upset about being in the wrong House, it's Chowder and I. Apparently we're both Hufflepuffs?"

Nursey honestly thinks that it's not the weirdest thing Johnson has ever said? Like, he still thinks it was weird for Johnson to presume to know his Hogwarts House better than he did, especially considering that they've only met a handful of times, but at least he hadn't referred to "the plot", or "the main narrative" or "the most popular background romantic subplot in the check please fandom" like he usually did.

"Well, he's right about Chowder at least," says Nursey. "You're definitely a squib though, Poindexter."

Dex flips his middle finger up at Nursey, his face stony and expressionless. Chowder slides off Nursey's lap to sit on the bed next to him, looking up at him with wide eyes.

 "He's not right about me!" Chowder protests. "I'm a Gryffindor!"

Nursey considers that. He's always considered Chowder as a Hufflepuff, but, now that he thinks about it, Chowder has the good traits of all the four houses. It's not completely unbelievable that Chowder could be a Gryffindor - he's one of the bravest people Nursey's ever met, and he's got a plenty of nerve. If Chowder feels like he's in Gryffindor, then he's probably a Gryffindor.

 That said, it's always way too much fun to mess with Chowder.

 Nursey glances over at Dex, trying to silently communicate his plan to him. Whether it's the d-man bond or the roommate bond or the being-best-friend-with-Chowder bond, somehow Dex miraculously seems to understand. He nods subtly at Nursey, the corner of his mouth quirking up ever so slightly.

 "Chowder," he says, soft and serious, like he's giving bad news to someone. "You're 100% Hufflepuff, bro."

 "Yeah," Nursey says. "You give off mad 'Puff vibes, C."

 Chowder manages to glare and pout at the same time, looking first at Nursey and then at Dex. Nursey stifles a laugh. Chowder crosses his arms over his chest. "I'm a Gryffindor," he repeats, firmer this time.

 "I'll concede that Goalie!Chowder may be Gryffindor," Nursey says, leaning back to rest on his hands. "Regular!Chowder though? Hufflepuff as fuck."

 "Nah, Goalie!Chowder is a Slytherin," Dex says. "He's mean."

 "Being "mean" is not a trait of Slytherin House," Nursey points out.

 "You're both mean and also wrong," says Chowder. "But! I will forgive you since you're both doing this costume with me."

 Dex is quiet for a moment and Nursey thinks that Chowder may have successfully tricked him into doing the costume with them. Chowder evidently thinks so too; Nursey can see his eyes sparkling with victory.

 "Wait," says Dex, suddenly sitting up straight in his chair. "I haven't agreed to it yet!"

 Nursey is kind enough not to point out that the 'yet' implies that Dex will definitely agree eventually. Chowder either doesn't notice or doesn't point it out. Instead, he looks at Dex and narrows his eyes, looking as focused and calculating as he does on the ice. Nursey can almost hear the gears in his brain turning

 "Fine," says Chowder, sadly. "I guess I can't convince you."

 His voice is resigned, but Nursey doesn't believe Chowder's really given up. He's sure that Dex doesn't believe it either. There's no way Chris Franklin Chow ever gives up on getting something he wants.

 "You can't," Dex says. He doesn't sound so sure about it.

 "I'll just have to ask Farmer to be Ron," says Chowder, turning to look at Nursey. "Do you think that'll be okay, Derek? The three of us will make a good trio, I think."

 Dex doesn't miss a beat. "Fuck off," he says, crossing his arms and scowling. "Frogs trio is the only trio you two are allowed to be a part of."

 Nursey grins, ducking his head to hide his smile from Dex. He should feel kind of bad for playing on Dex's insecurities like that, but Dex definitely knows that they wouldn't want to purposefully exclude him from anything. Well - not anymore at least.

 Besides, it's still kind of nice to know Dex wants to be included.

 "So, you'll do it?" Chowder says.

 Dex glares. "Yeah, yeah," he says, arms still tightly folded across his chest. "I'll do it."

 "Yay!" Chowder exclaims. He jumps off the bed and runs over to hug Dex. "Thank you, Dex!"

 "Yeah, whatever," Dex grumbles, but he's smiling as he moves to hug Chowder back. His ears are bright red.

 "I'm going to go call Cait so we can start planning the costumes!" Chowder exclaims, stepping away from Dex and moving to the door. "Bye, Dex! Bye, Nursey!"

 Chowder leaves the room. Nursey can hear Chowder's own room door slam loudly behind him. He and Dex stare at each other, their room oddly still and quiet in the wake of Hurricane Chowder.

 “Does it worry you that we legitimately can not say no to him?" Dex asks.

 Nursey grins. "Nah," he says. "It's what he deserves."

 And, if he's being honest with himself, a best friend like Chowder is exactly what he and Dex deserve too.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm mad jealous of these boys for living in a time before JKR decided that Nagini was a Korean woman.


End file.
